"Carreiro has spent much of her 51 years struggling, never having much but never wanting much more than love from her family. Her husband, Mario, works two jobs in the winter to make ends meet and Maria rarely sees him. But Monday was his last day working at a construction site, because the couple now has more money than they ever imagined they would."

As for the mix-up about how much she had won, Carreiro told reporters Monday that when she first looked at her ticket, "I just see 4-zero. ... I never win this much amount of money." And when her daughter figured out that the prize was 1,000 times better, Carreiro's first reaction was "No way!"